The Illusion of Progress in Women’s Entrepreneurship
A clear-eyed look at why rising numbers of women entrepreneurs have not yet translated into equal access to capital, scale, or power and what real progress would actually require.
WRITTEN BY ANKITA VASHISTHA
PUBLISHED MARCH 24, 2025
For years, the narrative around women’s entrepreneurship has been one of optimism. More women are starting businesses than ever before. Training programs, accelerators, and policy initiatives aimed at women entrepreneurs are everywhere. Conferences celebrate women founders. Headlines claim progress.
But beneath the surface, the reality is uneven and, in many respects, stubbornly unchanged. Yes, there is more activity. But increased participation does not equal equal opportunity, equal access, or equal outcomes. In fact, if we look closely at the data and barriers that persist, it becomes clear that the perception of progress is often greater than the lived experience of women entrepreneurs themselves.
Progress without parity is still a gap.
More Businesses, But Not Enough Support
One of the most widely cited indicators in entrepreneurship research is that women’s startup activity has increased over time. Today, roughly one in ten women globally starts a business, compared to one in eight men. This is up from around six percent in the early 2000s, suggesting that more women are launching ventures than before.
But the headline numbers hide deeper challenges. Even though women start businesses, they are much less likely to see those businesses mature. Large global surveys consistently show that established businesses owned by women are significantly fewer than those owned by men. This indicates that while entry into entrepreneurship has improved, longevity and scale remain major hurdles. Starting a business is one thing. Sustaining and growing it is another.
The Funding Mirage
Another area where the perception of progress is especially misleading is capital access. It is often claimed that more programs are investing in women founders. While there are encouraging initiatives, the overall picture remains stark.
Globally, female-only founding teams continue to receive only a very small share of venture capital, typically cited around two to three percent of total VC funding. This figure has remained relatively flat for years, despite growing awareness and targeted programs. Even in stronger years, women-led startups still receive a clear minority of total investment. This means the vast majority of institutional risk capital continues to flow toward male-led teams.
The credit picture is similar. In many emerging economies, women-owned businesses face a significant financing gap. Women entrepreneurs are less likely to receive formal loans, tend to receive smaller ticket sizes, and often face higher collateral requirements. This is not about lack of ambition. It is about unequal access to financial systems.
Structural Barriers Persist
Part of the illusion comes from focusing heavily on training programs and inspiration campaigns while ignoring structural constraints.
Women continue to face barriers that go beyond skills. These include complex regulatory environments, unequal property rights in some countries, lack of collateral, limited access to professional networks, and social expectations around caregiving. These factors shape who can take risk, who can travel for business, who can build networks, and who can persist through early losses.
In many cases, women are also more likely to close businesses due to family or personal responsibilities, not because their ventures are less viable, but because support systems remain unequal. These are systemic issues. They are not individual shortcomings.
The Paradox of Participation and Persistence
In many regions, women show high levels of entrepreneurial intent. Surveys regularly find that women express strong interest in starting businesses and often engage actively in informal enterprise. Yet participation alone does not translate into long-term success. Business survival rates, access to growth capital, entry into high-margin sectors, and scaling outcomes remain lower for women compared to men across most markets.
This pattern is consistent across income levels and geographies, which suggests the issue is not about motivation. It is about the environment in which women are expected to build.
The Investment Ecosystem Reflects the Gap
The funding ecosystem itself mirrors the imbalance. Women remain underrepresented in decision-making roles within venture capital and private investment firms. Many firms still have few or no female partners. This matters because networks, pattern recognition, and trust play a large role in investment decisions.
When capital allocators are not diverse, access pathways remain narrow. The result is that even highly capable women founders often struggle to enter the rooms where capital decisions are made.This is not an abstract problem. It directly affects who gets funded and who does not.
Not All Gaps Are Equal
Another uncomfortable truth is that gaps are widest in the most valuable parts of the economy. Women’s participation is particularly low in high-growth, technology-driven sectors such as deep tech, AI, advanced fintech, and scalable infrastructure businesses.
These sectors attract the most capital and generate the largest long-term wealth. Exclusion from these domains means exclusion from the most powerful engines of economic mobility. This is why celebrating rising numbers of women micro-entrepreneurs, while important, should not distract from the lack of women building companies in the sectors that shape the future economy.
What Real Progress Would Look Like
Progress should not be measured only by how many women start businesses. It should be measured by outcomes.
Real progress would look like:
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Equal access to venture and growth capital
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Greater participation in high-growth sectors
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Business environments that do not disadvantage women structurally
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Support systems that account for caregiving realities
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Equal access to digital infrastructure and advanced skills
Until these conditions improve meaningfully, the narrative of widespread progress remains incomplete.
A More Honest Framing
The story of women’s entrepreneurship is not one of failure. It is one of untapped potential constrained by systems. Women are building. They are innovating. They are leading enterprises across every sector. But they are doing so in environments that still place disproportionate friction in their path.
If we continue to focus only on participation metrics and inspirational narratives, we risk masking the deeper structural work that still needs to be done.
True progress will not be when more women start businesses.
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True progress will be when women can scale, compete, and succeed on equal footing.
Until then, the idea of progress remains, at least in part, an illusion.